Dive Brief:
- Companies failing to keep pace with digital transformation may "perish" or run the risk of acquisition, according to Forrester's predictions for 2018. Approximately one-fourth of CEOs will fail to implement timely digital transformation efforts, thus endangering the lifespan of their company.
- However, a 2% growth in wages is a result of a "balanced market" in terms of a healthy technical workforce. The real issue executives face is attracting specialized workers, such as data scientists, information security analysts and high-end software developers.
- As of now, companies that are "self-described digital laggards" face spending roughly 20% more than competitors to attract talent. Executives of these laggards believe their companies only have about 19% of the workforce they need.
Dive Insight:
Hiring through the H-1B visa program and training of the established workforce is actually closing the talent gap crisis, according to Forrester. However, companies behind in digital transformation are causing talent to look elsewhere.
Talented workers will resort to working for the laggards due to geographical restrictions but prefer to work for a company showcasing more robust and aggressive transformation strategies.
Approximately 77% of tech leaders have a difficult time finding employees with updated skills, while more than half say their programming analysis, business analysis and security management departments are understaffed.
Desperation is an understatement when it comes to acquiring talent to promote and expedite a company's digital transformation. However, salary demands are stalling the hiring process for 40% of CIOs.
The laggards find themselves in a perpetuating circle of stalled digital transformation due to the lack of talent an an inability to attract the talent required to move forward. The hiring timeframe is also time sensitive as most U.S. technical candidates are hired within 10 days.
